OPA fails to prove SPD officer assaulted teen daughter

The accountability agency claimed it could not meet its burden of proof despite witnesses and evidence of "minor—but visible—injuries."

The Office of Police Accountability sustained no allegations against Seattle police officer Jonard Legaspi for a 2021 domestic disturbance in which he allegedly pinned his 18-year-old daughter to a bed forcefully, preventing her from breathing for seconds at a time. The OPA issued an “inconclusive” finding in its public report released on June 2.

Because the alleged assault involved potential suffocation, an investigating detective from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office referred the case to the county prosecutor to consider charges of felony DV assault in the second degree.

The prosecutor’s office ultimately declined charges, explaining that it did not believe the case could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Legaspi’s daughter was uncooperative with prosecutors, which is common in domestic violence cases generally and DV involving police officers in particular.

The incident occurred inside Legaspi’s bedroom, so the only direct witnesses were Legaspi and his daughter. However, his daughter’s friend was standing outside the door. She could hear Legaspi’s daughter scream and cry out that she could not breathe.

Legaspi claims that his daughter was hitting him, so he bear-hugged her to prevent her from doing it again and walked her into his bedroom to talk privately. He denies slamming her on the bed and using his body weight to pin her, as his daughter alleges.

Photographs the SCSO detective took the following day showed bruising on her bicep, shoulder blade, and shoulder.

Explaining its findings, OPA concluded that the injuries weren’t “more consistent with [the daughter’s] account than [Legaspi’s],” but the teen said that Legaspi pinned her to the bed face down, an act that could cause bruising on the shoulder blades. The bruising on the bicep and shoulder demonstrates that he gripped her with enough force to leave a mark and cause pain.

This is largely inconsistent with Legaspi’s claims he firmly but gently bear-hugged his daughter and guided her to the bedroom. Legaspi told OPA that they were both lying on their sides and that he kept holding her until she calmed down, but he never put his body weight on her.

His daughter’s friend says that she heard Legaspi “slam” his daughter into the bed and scream that she couldn’t breathe. Legaspi’s other daughter also heard her screaming, “Get off me!” from the bathroom, but she said her father sounded calm. The children of Legaspi’s girlfriend were also present but have not been interviewed by OPA or the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.

OPA did not sustain lesser allegations of unprofessionalism, arguing that the burden of proof is “insurmountable.” Under the Seattle Police Officers Guild contract, OPA must have more than a preponderance of evidence to sustain allegations for “stigmatizing offenses.”